Y Combinator's Sam Altman At Airport Protest: This May Be A Defining Moment When People Oppose Trump

Y Combinator President Sam Altman at a protest of Donald Trump's refugee ban at San Francisco International Airport. (Photo: Chad McClymonds/Forbes)

Standing behind a protestor holding a "Muslims Are Welcome Here!" sign, Sam Altman flattened out the wrinkles in his shirt, straightened up and posed for an iPhone photo. It was an open act of defiance from the Y Combinator president, an influential figure in Silicon Valley, who joined the hundreds of demonstrators at San Francisco International Airport to rally against President Donald Trump's refugee ban.

"I hope this will be one of the defining moments where people came together against this administration," he said in a brief interview with FORBES. "This is an unacceptable action and we need to make our voices heard."

Altman, who earlier on Saturday penned a blog post titled "Time To Take A Stand," said that he'd been at the protests for a few hours after first seeing the events on Twitter. Earlier, Google cofounder Sergey Brin also joined the demonstrations, taking selfies with protestors and watching the proceedings for about 40 minutes.

Altman said he's been in multiple conversations with his tech company leaders. On Saturday, several CEOs including Apple's Tim Cook and Microsoft's Satya Nadella sent emails to employees detailing their displeasure with Trump's executive order and underlining the importance of immigrants to their companies.

"Today has been most involved I've seen tech CEOs--on email and text and everything else--that I'm friends about what we can do," said Altman. "Some responses have been measured. As a general rule I try not publicize private conversations, but I expect responses... in the next few days."

Earlier today, Altman's friend and Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk tweeted a carefully worded statement on the immigration policy, which blocks travelers from seven predominantly Muslim countries. Musk sits on a manufacturing advisory council for the new Trump administration and has met with the President on several occasions.

"The blanket entry ban on citizens from certain primarily Muslim countries is not the best way to address the country’s challenges," Musk wrote.

Leaving little room for interpretation, Altman was unequivocal in his denunciation. The ban, he said, will affect many employees across Y Combinator, a Silicon Valley accelerator that has provided funding and mentorship for dozens of successful companies including Dropbox and Airbnb.

"This is not something that just affects Muslims," he said. "This is something that affects all immigrants when you start not allowing people back--when they have green cards. So many of our founders are immigrants. A Muslim ban is representative of a policy of immigration that is anti-American."

Altman has faced heavy criticism for his company's ties to billionaire venture capitalist Peter Thiel, who supported Trump during the campaign and serves on the President's transition team executive committee. Prior to the election, Altman had to clarify that he did not agree with Thiel, a part-time partner at Y Combinator, but refused to fire him over his political views.

On Saturday, a spokesperson for Thiel issued a brief statement, noting "Peter doesn't support a religious test, and the administration has not imposed one."

"I haven't talked to [Thiel] yet," Altman said. "That is accurate in that this is not a religious test. But that is unacceptable and we disagree on that."

"I want to ask him what he thinks about this," he added. "I will at some point. I haven't talked to him in a while."

Altman, invigorated by the protestors, also remained optimistic. He talked for a few more moments before melting back into a crowd that had gathered at one of the security checkpoints at the airport's international terminal.

"Look, I obviously wish this didn't happen, but I'm glad this is happening," he said. "I spoke to someone earlier who voted for Trump and they said, "You know I was wrong.'"

With reporting from Matt Kang in San Francisco.

I'm a San Francisco-based reporter covering the agitators in technology and e-commerce. I started at Forbes as a member of the wealth team, putting together the magazine's well-known World Billionaires and Forbes 400 lists. I've worked at a number of publications including T...